“Tough-guy/gal-ism” is rampant again in Official Washington with many New Cold Warriors lusting for a military confrontation with Russia. But few of these hawks have a clear idea how deterrence worked during the real Cold War, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul…
Tag: Cold War
Risks of a New ‘Zero-Sum’ Cold War
The one-sided uproar in Official Washington over the Ukraine crisis, a cartoonish depiction even including parallels to Hitler, ignores the many on-the-ground gray areas. It also threatens to recreate the Cold War’s dangerous “zero-sum” calculations, says ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
The Flaw in ‘Cornering’ Russia
Official Washington, including its compliant mainstream media, paints Moscow as the “black hat” in the Ukraine crisis but the fuller picture would show that the supposed U.S. “white hats” are the ones who have violated the deal that ended the Cold War, writes ex-CIA…
Six Decades of H-Bomb Cover-ups
Hydrogen bomb explosions six decades ago gave the world a glimpse into the apocalypse and spread radioactive fallout around the globe but the worst suffering was inflicted on natives of U.S. protectorates in the Pacific Ocean, writes Beverly Deepe Keever.
Cuba Inches Toward New Future
Exclusive: The half-century-old U.S. embargo on Cuba is a relic of the Cold War and a stunning example of American hypocrisy given U.S. trade with China. But even those old walls are finally cracking with Cuban economic reform and U.S. companies…
Waiting to Launch Armageddon
The post-Cold War boredom among Air Force personnel assigned the task of endlessly waiting for the order to launch nuclear weapons has become a new destabilizing element in the risk of an accidental Armageddon, one that can only be addressed…
A Life Sacrificed for Peace
On Sept. 18, 1961, a plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold crashed in Africa as he was negotiating to stop a war in Congo. Hammarskjold’s death removed one of the great advocates for international peace, as Roger Lipsey explains in…
A Cold War Bias Toward Russia
President Obama and the mainstream U.S. press are blaming Russian President Putin for the breakdown in bilateral relations, but this simplistic view ignores the many U.S. government actions over the past two decades that have offended Moscow, as ex-CIA analyst Melvin…
The Fallout from Nuclear Secrecy
During the Cold War’s early years, the U.S. government detonated dozens of nuclear explosions on Pacific atolls, spreading nuclear fallout around the globe and making some areas uninhabitable, a grim legacy captured in secret documents finally being shared with the…
Obama Bows to Nuke Status Quo
President Obama has spoken brave words about breaking with the Cold War legacy of mutual assured destruction from nuclear weapons. But he has failed to challenge the national security state in implementing the change he espoused, as Lawrence S. Wittner…